23-10-2007 16:52

Interview Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn is trying to make a name for himself as a director. He presents his second feature film, “Stardust”, a dark fairy tale...

A producer alongside his best friend Guy Ritchie – he was even best man at Guy’s wedding with Madonna – Matthew Vaughn (aka as Mr. Claudia Schiffer) is now trying to make a name for himself as a director. He presents his second feature film, “Stardust”, a dark fairy tale with an all-star cast and a young actor named Charlie Cox, who’s set to become a star himself. In fact, in his first film as director, Matthew Vaughn gave a starring role to a certain Daniel Craig.  

So you made “Layer Cake”, the movie which really launched Daniel Craig’s career.

I think Bond launched him more, but it helps. It got him in the driving seat.  

What do you think makes a great fantasy film, especially one adapted from a book?

For me, it’s escaping. If you watch a movie and you lose yourself and you feel like you have gone to another world and forgotten about your day, you’ve succeeded. Fantasy is about anything that’s not real, although I tried to make this as realistic as I could. The problem is that a lot of fantasy films go a little too far to thazt extreme, but for me fantasy is just escapism.  

Were you inspired by the illustrations of Charles Vess for the set?

Yes and no. I was for Victorian England, because he draws in a very Victorian way. My problem was – and I nearly changed the movie and set it in modern times – that when you’re a kid, Victorian England looks like a fantasy place already. It’s going from one weird-looking place to another weird place. I wanted Stormhold to have more of an edge, look more accessible, and Charles’ stuff is a bit too whimsical and pretty, so I wanted to just to ground it a bit more. Ultimately, he was inspiring for it, but I changed a lot of it. But he liked it. He came down to the set and was pleasantly surprised ‘cos he knew I’d gone off and done my own thing.  

How did you work with Neil Gaiman?

He was there when I needed him and he wasn’t when I didn’t. Every now and then when I wasn’t sure about something, I respected the fact that he wrote the book, therefore ultimately it’s his brains. So I just made sure I told him if I made a big change – which I did. I changed a lot of stuff in the book. Have you read the book? You’ll be surprised at how different bits of it are. I think because I always kept him in the process, when he saw the film, he enjoyed it.  

You changed it that much?

Yes, a lot. The last half hour isn’t really in the book at all. And Captain Shakespeare is not in the book. So there are a few things that enhanced it, made it more cinematic.  

What inspired Captain Shakespeare? He reminds me in some ways of Jack Sparrow, his effeminate affectations.

Right. Basically in the book, the captain has some other name – I don’t remember the name – and in the book it’s just two lines. He says they went on a boat, a flying ship, and they had the best two weeks of their life. That’s all that’s in the book! So I said, hold on! I’ve gotta expand this. This is the transition now from nerd to becoming a hero. So I wrote it and was thinking, This is so cliché, the pirate going, “Oh my son, you’re gonna be a man. Here’s a sword fight, and she’s so pretty.” And I thought, How am I gonna make this character different? Why did I decide to make him gay? I don’t know, but it did tie in with the movie. Everyone’s got two sides to their character. It just brought into the fact of Tristan becoming himself and learning that we should fall in love with the right person.

Now that I’ve got kids, it sounds corny but I decided I wanted to make a move which had decent messages for children. I’m guilty of making some pretty violent drug movies. So I thought I need to start pounding it out a bit! (Laughs)  

Something your kids could watch.

Yeah, exactly!  

There is a dark side to the story as well.

Kids like darkness. Kids hate being talked down to. My favorite children’s author is Roald Dahl, who pushes it as far as he can get away with. I didn’t want to talk down to kids, but also I wanted to try and make a move that’s an adult film for kids and a kid film for adults.  

Something Roald Dahl would’ve watched!

Roald, Dahl, my hero, absolutely!  

Would you like to adapt one of his books?

I’d love to! I wanted to do “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, but somebody else is doing it now. Charlie’s gone. “James and the Giant Peach” is pretty surreal but we might be able to do it. I love all that. I read Roald Dahl to my kids. I get as much pleasure reading them as my son does in hearing them.  

Getting back to Captain Shakespeare, how did you get Robert De Niro to accept the part?

We sent him the script, he liked it. He was a fan of “Layer Cake”. And then we had a meeting an d we got along very well. I think it’s because he’s got kids as well. Do you have kids? One day, it will transform your life. Until you have it, it’s impossible to describe how it transforms your life and hopefully gets your priorities sorted out immediately. It’s what should happen. I know, some parents where it hasn’t. You’d think they’re the anti-Christ! (Laughs) You suddenly start doing things which you never imagined doing. The environment? I had no interest in it. Now I’ve got little kids, you think, Actually, I want to make sure they have a clean planet. So it changes things.  

Michell Pfeiffer is a pretty good choice, I think, for the witch. I mean, we think of “Witches of Eastwick”…

I forgot she was in that! She rang me up and said, “I’ve got a really good idea. Why don’t we cast Cher and Susan Sarandon in the film?” I was like, “That’s interesting. Why did you pick them?” She said, “What do you mean why?” Then I realized! What was interesting was that Michelle was willing to let me show how old she became – she fell to pieces in front of the camera. We were laughing at the pressure that women feel to look young, stay young and not age gracefully, especially in Hollywood, where you have these freaks with Botox in their lips. They look scarier. I don’t know why they do it. It makes them less attractive as far as I’m concerned. And so Michelle and I discussed it and we thought we’d use them as a metaphor. For example, if I said to you now, “Watch out, the Wolfman’s behind that door,” you’d be, “Don’t be ridiculous.” But if I said, “There’s a rapist there that you gotta be careful of,” it would feel real. And getting old has that effect. If she had claws and fangs, she’d be scary, but the old thing seems to scare people a lot more. And I was so impressed that she was willing to do it, ‘cos most women turning 50 in Hollywood are doing everything not to remind people of that. I think Michelle looks extraordinary.  

And Charlie Cox claims that you made him read for the part for like four months!

Four months yet! It must have been pretty nerve wracking for him. But it paid off in the end.  

He’d probably be cursing you if he hadn’t gotten the part after all that time.

He’s probably cursing me anyway! (Laughs)  

Does it annoy you that people keep going on about how you’re only a second-time director?

I went into a meeting one time where they were treating my like I’d only made one film. I was like, “Guys, I’ve been doing this now for 16 years.” Someone once said something like, “If you choose one thing in life and keep doing it, one day you will become very good at it.” So I do get irritated when I’m in Hollywood sometimes. I’ve only done two movies as director, but I do have a pretty good understanding of the craft of filmmaking. I’ve done it now for nearly 16 years. In fact, more than 16 years – 18 years! Jeez! Eighteen years! I didn’t realize it was that long. Time does fly. OK? Sorry, carry on!  

Which movie inspired you to go into filmmaking?

“Star Wars”, ’77. I used to hate going to the cinema because of the dreadful Disney movies. I saw “Star Wars” and I thought, Holy Moley!  

Are you one of those fans who’ve seen it 170 times?

More!  

Really?

The weird thing is that I’ve seen it so many times I shouldn’t admit to how many times I’ve seen it. My son just discovered it and I watch it with him all the time. It drives my wife insane!  

What did you think of “X-Men 3”?

It was weird because I worked on it and I storyboarded a lot of it. I think given the amount of time they had to make the film, it was pretty good. My version would’ve been different, very different. Far more emotional, far more about the characters. My version would’ve been at least half an hour longer. I couldn’t believe how short it was. I thought it was OK. It wasn’t as good as X1 or X2. It lost its soul.  

Are you going to do “Thor”?

I’ve done the script and we’re talking about it. But it’s a huge logistical and financial burden for anyone. So the budget is like 300 million at the moment, so we’re trying to reshape it and get it down. So yes, I’m committed to it.  

Charlie Cox said earlier that you might be doing a WWI film together.

It’s all to do with “Thor”, if “Thor” is going ahead or not. It’s a smaller very dramatic, beautiful script. I need to find someone to play the opposite role, many, tough. There aren’t many actors who are like that. They’re all wimps these guys now. They’re not the McQueens, the Lee Marvins… a man’s man. They’ve all gone.  

Well, there’s Jason Statham.

Yeah, there’s Jason. Maybe Jason.  

What do you think if the British film industry? Ken Loach told me that it was so-so.

He’s right. It’s tragic – we’ve got Harry Potter and bond, two of the most successful franchises of all time, and all that money goes to Hollywood. Yet it’s a British idea, British, crew, British cast. That’s one of the reasons I did “Stardust”. I was like, “Guys, we can do this.” It’s got half British money it. I could’ve done fully British, but it would’ve been a little too conservative. We have the talent in England, - great filmmakers, great writers, great actors – but we haven’t got much money and we don’t seem to have this belief. So many great British movies get made but no one watches it, and I don’t see the point in making a film for no audience. I think France has a better attitude towards its cinema. It’s more proud.